Building construction elements

ABSTRACT

A roof batten forming sheet for a roofing system for a building, the building including a plurality of spaced apart rafters, the roof batten forming sheet including a base panel section which includes opposed side edge portions, at least one of the side edge portions being configured so as to at least in part form a roof batten for retaining roofing thereon.

This invention relates generally to roofing systems for buildings and components therefor.

Roof battens for tiled rooves typically take the form of a plurality of parallel timber battens nailed across a number of rafters. There are dangers to roofers and tilers when applying battens or laying tiles or sheet roofing. Gaps between adjacent rafters leave space for roof workers to fall through when negotiating between rafters.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a roof batten forming sheet for a roofing system for a building, the building including a plurality of spaced apart rafters, the roof batten forming sheet including a base panel section which includes opposed side edge portions, at least one of the side edge portions being configured so as to at least in part form a roof batten for retaining roofing thereon.

In one form the base panel section has an upper face and at least one side edge portion is a generally L-shaped section one leg extending laterally away from the upper face of base panel section and the other leg being spaced from and generally parallel to the base panel section. Preferably each of the opposite side edge portions include a said L-shaped section.

In another form the aforementioned at least one side edge portion is a generally U-shaped section.

The roof batten forming sheet may further include reinforcing ribs in said base panel section. Preferably, the base panel section is generally rectangular when viewed in plan and having further opposed side edge sections extending between said opposed side edge sections, said reinforcing ribs extending between said further side edge sections.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a roofing system for a building, the building including a plurality of spaced apart rafters support on a building frame the roofing system including a plurality of roof batten forming sheets of the type described above, the sheets, in situ being disposed on the rafters, at least one sheet spanning between adjacent rafters, adjacent sheets being adapted to be assembled together so that the adjacent side edge portions thereof form a roof batten for retaining roofing material thereon.

The roofing system may further include a starter batten strip which is adapted to be mounted to the rafters and a side edge portion of a first of the roof batten sheet is adapted to be fitted thereto. Preferably the said starter batten includes a substantially U-shaped section having a base and two legs, the base, in situ, being secured to adjacent rafters, one of the legs forming part of a batten when connected to a roof batten forming sheet, the other of the legs providing means for mounting thereto a fascia

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a soffit support or eave support adapted to extend from a rafter overhang to a building frame or outer wall of a building wherein the support is formed as a telescopic or extensible member so as to be adapted for use across a range of sizes of eave overhang.

Preferably, an eave support of the second aspect of the present invention is formed from metal.

In a further embodiment of this second aspect, the outermost end, when in use, is shaped to complementarily retain a portion of a metallic facia panel mounted across the outermost ends of a plurality of roof rafters.

A typical variable length range for an eave support of the second aspect of the invention is from 400 mm to 750 mm.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided of a leaf-guard for guttering to be fitted to buildings.

In accordance with this aspect of the present invention there is provided a leaf-guard arrangement for roof guttering comprising an asymmetrically hinged plate adapted to substantially cover a gutter opening for receiving water run-off from a roof, the hinge line of the plate being parallel to the longitudinal axis of the gutter and closer to the rear of the gutter than the front whereby a turning moment about the hinge axis due to the asymmetry of the hinged plate acts to bias the hinged plate toward a stop to locate the plate in a covering position of the gutter opening until water flow off a roof, to which the gutter and leaf-guard have been fitted, overcomes the turning moment to rotate the plate about its hinge line thereby enabling ingress of water into the gutter.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a fascia panel for covering the lower ends of a plurality of adjacent rafters, and wherein the panel includes an eave soffit support and means for connecting to a fascia support adapted to be mounted on the top of each rafter.

Fascia panels advantageously prevent the ingress of fire embers to timber rafters.

A preferred form of fascia panel of the this aspect includes gutter clips for hanging a run of guttering off its face. Preferably, the gutter clips provide for adjustment of the fall of the run of guttering to be hung off the fascia panel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side or section view of a portion of a building construction showing an embodiment of each of the first and second aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of another embodiment of the first aspect of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a isometric view of a third embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a fourth embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of an embodiment of the second aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of a section of guttering showing an embodiment of the third aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the section of guttering of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a side elevation of a rafter with a portion of an embodiment of a starter batten mounted thereon;

FIG. 9 is a side elevation of a rafter showing a section view of an embodiment of a fascia panel in accordance with the fourth aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is an exploded view of the circled portion of the fascia panel of FIG. 9; and

FIGS. 11 to 14 are various illustrations of further embodiments of roofing systems according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1 there is shown a rafter 10 overhanging a timber wall stud 11 and external brick wall 12 of a brick veneer building.

An extendible soffit support 13 is nailed to stud 11 at location 14 and to rafter 10 at location 15. Each of locations 14 and 15 can be provided as integrally formed gang nail plates, where support 13 is made of metal, so that support 13 can be readily nailed, screwed or gang nailed to stud 11 and rafter 10. The underside of support 13 provides a fixing surface for mounting an eave soffit.

Atop rafter 10 there are mounted adjacent batten forming sheets or plates 20. Each plate 20 is formed with ribs 21 pressed into the planar plate section 22 to increase the rigidity of the sections of plate 20 that span between adjacent rafters 10.

In the embodiments of FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 the planar sections 22 of each plate 20 are depicted, for clarity, without stiffening ribs 21 or an equivalent means for increasing the rigidity of sections 22.

At the upper and lower extremities of plate 20 as shown in FIG. 1, the metal of the plate has been shaped at 23 and 24, respectively, to form at least part of a transverse batten spanning between adjacent rafters and adapted to hold a tile (not shown) or roofing sheets (not shown) laid on the roof.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2 only one extremity 25 is shaped as a batten while in FIGS. 3 and 4 each of opposite extremities 23, 24 is, at least in part, forming a batten which is completed when an adjacent plate 20 are fitted together as shown in FIGS. 1-3.

Telescoping soffit support or eave support 13 of FIG. 5 is identical with the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 with telescoping section indicated by 13′. An additional interaction between support 13 and plate 20 is shown in FIG. 1 where a metallic or similar facia panel 40 is mounted therebetween. Facia panel 40 is adapted to clip onto hook portion 16 of support 13 and under portion 24 of lowermost plate 20 and hook onto starter batten/fascia clip 25.

An embodiment of the third aspect of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, where a gutter leaf guard in the form of planar rectangular plate portion 30 is hingedly mounted at 31 in transverse ribs 32 spanning opening 33 of guttering 37. Each plate 30 is formed with stopper plates 34 which contact ribs 32 to restrict rotational movement of plate 30. The pivot axis 35 is asymmetrically positioned, toward the rear 36 of guttering 37, through plate 30 so that plate 30 imparts a turning moment about hinge line 35 to bias plate 30, such that stops 34 contact the underside of respective ribs 32.

Under dry weather conditions plate 30 covers opening 33 as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 so that leaf litter and the like accumulate on the top surface of plate 30 and can be readily blown or brushed off that plate. When rain falls water flows off a roof (not shown) and onto the part of plate 30 nearest the rear 36 of guttering 37. The weight of water flowing onto the rear of plate 30 adds weight to the rear of plate 30 to overcome the turning moment due to the weight of plate 30 between hinge line 35 and the front of guttering 37. The effect of this is to move the stops 34 away from contact with ribs 32 to allow water to flow into gutter opening 33.

FIG. 8 shows a rafter 10 with a starter batten 25 of the kind employed in the embodiment of FIG. 1. As viewed in FIG. 1, starter batten/fascia clip 25 forms part of the lowermost roof batten 24 while also functioning as a hook or clip to secure the top of fascia panel 40.

Detail of fascia panel 40 is shown in FIG. 9 where complementary hook portion 41 clips over starter batten/fascia clip 25. On the front face of panel 40 there is a gutter clip 42 which is shown in better detail in FIG. 10 as well as ribs 43 to hold guttering, when mounted on the fascia panel, out of contact with panel 40 and under the gripping action of gutter clip 42.

Gutter clip 42 includes gripping teeth or ribs 44 which facilitate mounting a run of guttering at different heights along the fascia to achieve a desired fall angle for good drainage by the length of guttering so mounted.

FIG. 11 is a schematic side elevation of a further embodiment of a roofing system according to the present invention. The same reference numerals have been used to identify similar parts as described with reference to the earlier embodiments.

The batten forming sheets 20 are mounted to spaced apart rafters 10 as described earlier. In this particular embodiment the batten forming edge portions 23 and 24 are generally in the form of an inverted Vee but with a flat bottom. The edge portions 23 and 24 are complementary in shape so that they can nest together when two sheets are disposed side by side. The sheets 20 may be arranged so that at the first coupling section the edge portion 23 of the lower sheet nests within edge portion 24 of the next sheet and then the edge portion 23 of that next sheet overlies the edge portion 24 of the following sheet.

In the embodiment of FIG. 11 the starter batten 25 is formed integral with the lower most sheet 20. The starter batten 25 includes an outer wall 28 arranged so as to form a channel 27 on the outer side of edge portion 24. The outer wall 28 has an inwardly extending flange at its upper free edge to which fascia can be mounted.

FIG. 12 is a schematic side elevation of a further embodiment of soffit support 13 in a mounted position on a building structure. As shown the soffit support 13 has two body portions 13′ and 13″ which can move relative to one another so that the overall length of the body can be adjusted. A flange 15 enables the soffit support 13 to be secured to the rafter 10 and a flange 17 enables the soffit support 13 to be secured to the building frame 11. A fitting 16 is adapted to receive the fascia.

FIG. 13 is a schematic side elevation of the roof system including the soffit support shown in FIGS. 11 and 12.

FIG. 14 is a similar view to that of FIG. 13 but showing the fascia 40 in the mounted position.

Where the battens are to be used for supporting tiles the side edge portion 24 of the lower most sheet is larger than the other edge portions thereby forming a bellcast. This is not necessary in the case where the battens are to be used for supporting roofing in the form of sheeting, shingles or slate.

The channel 27 forms a stormwater channel to provide for control of water run-off in addition to the normal guttering. The assembly also inhibits the entry of vermin to the cavity of the roof of the building. The assembly also acts as a barrier to fire inhibiting the ingress of embers into the roof cavity.

Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word “comprise”, and variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or step or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or step or group of integers or steps.

The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia.

Finally, it is to be understood that the inventive concept in any of its aspects can be incorporated in many different constructions so that the generality of the preceding description is not to be superseded by the particularity of the attached drawings. Various alterations, modifications and/or additions may be incorporated into the various constructions and arrangements of parts without departing from the spirit or ambit of the invention. 

1. A roof batten forming sheet for a roofing system for a building, the building including a plurality of spaced apart rafters, the roof batten forming sheet including a base panel section which includes opposed side edge portions, at least one of the side edge portions being configured so as to at least in part form a roof batten for retaining roofing thereon.
 2. A roof batten forming sheet according to claim 1 wherein said base panel section has an upper face and at least one side edge portion is a generally L-shaped section one leg extending laterally away from the upper face of base panel section and the other leg being spaced from and generally parallel to the base panel section.
 3. A roof batten forming sheet according to claim 2 wherein each of said opposite side edge portions include a said L-shaped section.
 4. A roof batten forming sheet according to claim 1 wherein said at least one side edge portion is a generally U-shaped section.
 5. A roof batten forming sheet according to claim 1 further including reinforcing ribs in said base panel section.
 6. A roof batten forming sheet according to claim 5 wherein said base panel section is generally rectangular when viewed in plan and having further opposed side edge sections extending between said opposed side edge sections, said reinforcing ribs extending between said further side edge sections.
 7. A roofing system for a building, the building including a plurality of spaced apart rafters support on a building frame the roofing system including a plurality of roof batten forming sheets according to claim 1 said sheets, in situ being disposed on said rafters, at least one said sheet spanning between adjacent rafters, adjacent said sheets being adapted to be assembled together so that the adjacent side edge portions thereof form a roof batten for retaining roofing material thereon.
 8. A roofing system according to claim 7 wherein said base panel section has an upper face and at least one side edge portion is a generally L-shaped section one leg extending laterally away from the upper face of base panel section and the other leg being spaced from and generally parallel to the base panel section.
 9. A roofing system according to claim 8 wherein each of said opposite side edge portions include a said L-shaped section.
 10. A roofing system according to claim 7 wherein said at least one side edge portion is a generally U-shaped section.
 11. A roofing system according to claim 7 further including reinforcing ribs in said base panel section.
 12. A roofing system according to claim 11 wherein said base panel section is generally rectangular when viewed in plan and having further opposed side edge sections extending between said opposed side edge sections, said reinforcing ribs extending between said further side edge sections.
 13. A roofing system according to claim 7 further including a starter batten strip which is adapted to be mounted to the rafters and a side edge portion of a first of said roof batten sheet is adapted to be fitted thereto.
 14. A roofing system according to claim 8 wherein said starter batten includes a substantially U-shaped section having a base and two legs, said base, in situ, being secured to adjacent rafters, one of said legs forming part of a batten when connected to a roof batten forming sheet, the other of said legs providing means for mounting thereto a fascia.
 15. A roofing system according to claim 8 wherein said starter batten is integral with one said sheets and includes a channel section and a batten forming section, the channel section, in situ, being disposed on an outer side of the batten forming section and includes an outer wall for mounting a fascia thereto. 